Foreword

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter. I hope you are having as fine a start to 2011 as your Department, the anniversary celebrant.

The reasons for our good cheer are liberally scattered across this Newsletter, but I'll limit myself to mentioning just a few.

First, our students have continued to excel in competitions, far and wide. Jillian Ney, for example, won international blogging competition run by Mashable, the online social media news specialists. Her prize was an all-access pass to the 2010 Prof. Kevin Ibeh
BlogWorld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas. Ashley Duncan was ranked in the Top Ten of UK "Business and Economics" graduates, having been chosen from thousands of nominations submitted by 81 UK universities. The quartet of Euan De Ste Croix, James Barkley, Ross Baptie and Paula Mullan emerged finalists in a prestigious international sales contest held in Chicago. Scott Stevenson and Dawn Henderson also received accolades for their outstanding Honours dissertation projects; Scott won the Scottish Premier League's best dissertation prize, while Dawn got a global profiling in the prestigious Wharton Magazine. More accolades are awaited, as we're currently selecting a nominee for the prestigious American Marketing Association Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium, which is open to students from only a select number of elite Marketing Departments around the world.

Second, our commitment to attracting top Marketing academic talent has continued to be met with significant success. We have already welcomed two new staff members this calendar year and are expecting a few others in 2011. A number of adjunct appointees have also recently joined us, including Senior Honorary Research Fellow Robert Whyte of the Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group.

Third, our 40th anniversary celebrations got off to a fantastic start with a very successful banner unveiling ceremony. Attendance was great, with good representation from the alumni, students, staff, past and present, the University's Executive team (Dean, Strathclyde Business School), the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, Chamber of Commerce and international academia - see full report and pictures inset. Relatedly, our Marketing2011 LinkedIn Group have grown by over 20 per cent during the past six months. Please join if you are yet to do so here.

Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to those colleagues who have already notified us of their intention to join us during the Stenhouse Weekend / Anniversary Dinner in June 10-11 this year. Please get in touch, via www.marketing2011.org or by email, if you have not already done so. We are also very appreciative of the efforts of alumni and colleagues who are organising toward a Chapter event in their respective international locations to mark the Department's 40th anniversary. Please keep us in the loop as we're keen to work with you in this regard.

Best wishes

Kevin

Prof. Kevin Ibeh,
Head of Marketing Department,
University of Strathclyde.